Current overall leader of the Maktoum Sailing Trophy, Horizon FCB, scored a double race victory as the fifth round of series got underway at the Dubai Offshore Sailing Club (DOSC).

Horizon FCB tightened her grip on the Maktoum Sailing Trophy yesterday by making a perfect start to the fifth round of the series at Dubai Offshore Sailing Club.

Owned by Sheikh Khaled BIN ZAYED AL NAHYAN and skippered by Christophe VANEK (FRA), the 36ft Horizon comfortably won both of the opening day's two races on handicap after one of her biggest title challengers, Serdal Dubai, had twice taken line honours.

On a day of near perfect sailing conditions, Serdal skipper Mark FEILBERG (AUS) and his crew worked hard to capitalize on their superior speed and stay in the hunt for the Maktoum title. However whilst the 44ft challenger, owned by Sheikh Rashid BIN KHALIFA AL MAKTOUM, produced a flawless performance, it was not enough to unsettle VANEK and his crew, which included two of the UAE's brightest young sailing talents, brothers Adel and Yousef KHALID. They were concentrating on staying out of trouble and followed Serdal to the line twice to score two comfortable victories on handicap.

Sponsored by Van Oord, MMI and Thomsun/Yamaha, the fifth of seven rounds of the series at DOSC is creating a new chapter for keelboat racing in the UAE, with arbitration on the water being carried out for the first time by an international panel of judges appointed by the ISAF.

'This is setting the scene for some very exciting racing because the smartest skippers can use the rules to their advantage while they can also lose out if they make a mistake and pick up an immediate penalty,' said Saeed HAREB, Managing Director of Maktoum Sailing Trophy organizers Dubai International Marine Club.

The judges were soon in action, inflicting a penalty turn on John ROSE's Class 2 series leader Insatiable following an infringement against Xclusive, skippered by Yousef BIN LAHEJ, quickly after the start of the first race.

That setback saw ROSE lose out in the race to David MADDEN's Time Out, and the result was repeated in the second race of the day. However Insatiable still held a commanding overall lead in Class 2 and appears to be unbeatable.

With Horizon seemingly well in control and on course to become the first winner of the prestigious Matkoum Trophy after four rounds, both David WORRALL (UAE), skipper of second-placed Sharazad, and FEILBERG, had hoped to use tactics to close the gap on the leaders.

In the opening race, a perfectly executed manoeuvre at the second turn gave the advantage to Serdal Dubai and they gradually moved away from Horizon to be first across the finish line. However the IRC handicap system gave Horizon a clear win from Serdal, with David ROSTANT's Switch Blade taking third place ahead of Sharazad, Xclusive, and Patrick CAHILL's Southern Cross.

There was a similar pattern to the second race, although no more penalties for the judges to impose and Switch Blade this time finished runner-up to Horizon in front of Serdal Dubai. The fifth round of the Maktoum Trophy continues at DOSC with two more races today whilst the last two rounds of the series follow later this month.

Tom Burton (AUS) and Alison Young (GBR) hit the right note in the Laser and Laser Radial at ISAF Sailing World Cup Melbourne as they took out the top honours and qualification spots to the 2015 ISAF Sailing World Cup Final.

It was double Australian gold in the Paralympic classes. Matt Bugg (AUS) came out on top in the 2.4mR whilst London 2012 Paralympic SKUD18 gold medallists Dan Fitzgibbon and Liesl Tesch (AUS) were triumphant in the two person keelboat.

Lithuania's Juozas Bernotas came out on top in the Men's RS:X whilst Russia's Stefania Elfutina was triumphant in the Women's RS:X. Both sailors claim the first Abu Dhabi ISAF Sailing World Cup Final spots whilst Jock Calvert (AUS) and Joanna Sterling (AUS) picked up the Oceanic spots for the Emirati finale.

There was some fast paced action in the 49er and 49erFX Medal Races at ISAF Sailing World Cup Melbourne as Nathan Outteridge & Iain Jensen (AUS) and Maia & Ragna Agerup (NOR) claimed the honours and Abu Dhabi final spots.

A tight group of five young Papua New Guinean (PNG) Laser sailors are stepping up their 2015 Pacific Games competition program using this week's ISAF Sailing World Cup Melbourne. PNG is one of 33 countries represented at the important Oceanic event, the largest Olympic sailing regatta in the southern hemisphere.

Melbourne, Australia will host the final Rio 2016 Paralympic Games qualification regatta in 2015. With just under one year until the event, the 2015 IFDS Worlds was launched at ISAF Sailing World Cup Melbourne.

ISAF Sailing World Cup Melbourne kick starts the journey to the 2015 ISAF Sailing World Cup Final in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates with qualification spots and top ranking points available in the Australian city.

Four boats in the Volvo Ocean Race celebrated rounding the venerated landmark of Cape Horn on Monday, a pleasure cruelly denied Dongfeng Race Team (Charles Caudrelier/FRA) after the Chinese boat's mast was broken early in a dramatic day on Leg 5.

The wind played dirty tricks all day in Palma on the sailors and race committees who had to juggle with big shifts and different pressure. From 4 to 20 knots, and reaching 40 in some gusts, the wind turned around the bay playing with everybody's nerves.

Ghosting across the line in the inky blackness of a Mediterranean spring night, finally slicing through the finish line set on the very waters where some 40 odd years ago he cut his teeth as a young, aspiring sailor harbouring great dreams, at 01:47:00hrs local time Guillermo Altadill and his talented, ever reliable Chilean co-skipper Jose Muñoz secured second placed in this third edition of the Barcelona World Race, the round the world race for two crew which left the Catalan capital on December 31st 2014.

Algoa Bay brought lighter conditions on Sunday, and after a postponement waiting for the wind to settle, the race got underway in 7 knots of breeze from the south-east. Ted Conrads and Brian Haines from the USA were the pathfinders, and opened up the gate for the fleet as they sailed out to the right-hand side of the course.